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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28508742">Fighting Nightmares</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/theramblinrose/pseuds/theramblinrose'>theramblinrose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Walking Dead (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, cyreese</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 18:55:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,163</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28508742</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/theramblinrose/pseuds/theramblinrose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Cyreese, AU.  Part of becoming Daddy meant learning to chase away nightmares.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Carol Peletier/Tyreese Williams</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Fighting Nightmares</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>AN:  This is something of a continuation of “A Fresh Start,” but it can also stand alone.  It’s in response to a Tumblr prompt/request.</p><p>I own nothing from The Walking Dead.</p><p>I hope you enjoy!  Let me know what you think!  </p><p>1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111</p><p>“Do you want me to go?”  Carol asked, pulling at Tyreese’s arm.</p><p>“I’ve got it,” Tyreese said, pushing back the blanket.</p><p>“Ty—I can go.  I’ll take care of it,” Carol said.</p><p>“Carol—part of being Daddy means that I have to start taking care of some things,” Tyreese said.  “Especially if we’re serious about—about growing this family.  You’re not going to be able to handle everything alone if we have more children, and I could use the chance to practice some Daddy skills.  Now—go to sleep.  Everything’s fine.  I’ll take care of it.”  </p><p>“I just don’t want her to—bother you,” Carol said.</p><p>Tyreese’s felt the quick tightening in his chest as he fully realized what was happening.  She was responding to some residual memory of Ed Peletier, her ex-husband.  The man had left landmines all over the landscape of her mind with his abuse.  Tyreese tried not to trip them, but were so sensitive that they went off all on their own sometimes, and others Tyreese simply accidentally stepped into on occasion.</p><p>Tyreese leaned and placed a soft kiss on her lips before he brushed his fingers against her cheek.  Instinctively, she flinched away from the touch.  Tyreese’s chest caught again.  One day, she wouldn’t flinch away from any touch.  That was one of his goals.  It was going to take a lot more time, though, than had passed since she’d escaped Ed’s grasp.</p><p>“She’s a part of you,” Tyreese said.  “And once the adoption goes through, she’ll legally be my daughter.  She doesn’t bother me.  Ever.  Now—go back to sleep.  I’ve got this.”  </p><p>Tyreese eased out of the bed and padded down the hallway to Sophia’s room.  The door was ajar, as it always was, and he tapped at it lightly.</p><p>“Mommy?”  Sophia asked from inside, her voice shaky from the crying that had awakened both Carol and Tyreese.</p><p>“Daddy,” Tyreese offered.  The title was still new on his tongue.  He still hadn’t grown accustomed to it.  He was learning it.  He was learning to appreciate it.</p><p>Sophia was Carol’s five-year-old daughter.  She was a victim of her abusive father’s terrible mental mistreatment.  Carol had physically protected her daughter from her father—offering her own body over as a sacrifice for his mistreatment any time he needed a distraction to keep from hurting the girl, but it had been impossible to protect her little mind.</p><p>Ed Peletier had more than happily signed over the rights to Sophia—whom he never really wanted, from what Tyreese could tell—the moment that he learned that doing so dissolved any financial responsibility that he might have to her.  </p><p>Now that Tyreese and Carol were married, the paperwork was in the process that would name Tyreese as Sophia’s legal parent.  </p><p>The emotional work of becoming Daddy, though, was a little more involved than signing papers and proving to a court that he was a responsible choice for a parent.</p><p>“Where’s Mommy?”  Sophia sniffed.</p><p>“She’s sleeping a little,” Tyreese said.  “Can I come in?  Please?”  </p><p>“OK,” Sophia answered after a moment.  Tyreese waited outside the door until he had permission.  One of the first things he wanted to do with both of his ladies—though in very different ways and in very different situations—was to teach them that he valued their consent.  He would not take advantage of Carol’s body without her explicit permission—not in any way—and he would not so much as invade Sophia’s sanctuary without her permission.  They both needed to learn that they were allowed and encouraged to set boundaries—and that their boundaries would be respected.</p><p>Tyreese stepped inside the room.  There was a soft glow that lit the way coming from the butterfly nightlight that Sophia had chosen for her new bedroom.</p><p>When she’d moved into her room here, she’d chosen to leave almost every single thing behind that she had ever owned.  She kept a doll—Maddie, her precious ragdoll that her mother had given her when she was practically a baby—and she’d kept her clothes.  Everything else, she’d wanted to leave behind because it reminded her of her life with Ed.  At first, Carol had argued that maybe that was a terrible financial idea to allow her to do that, since it meant replacing nearly everything, but Tyreese had argued that money meant nothing next to peace of mind.  </p><p>Carol, too, had ended up leaving behind most of her things.  </p><p>Even a materialistic clean slate, though, couldn’t erase the years of mental damage that Ed had done to those that Tyreese called his “leading ladies.”  There was no magic fix for that—only time and patience.</p><p>Tyreese knelt down on his knees next to Sophia’s bed, putting himself more at her level.  He reached over and switched on the tiny lamp—decorated with bright yellow flowers that looked so happy for a little girl who, at the moment, looked so sad—and rested his hands on the side of the mattress.  He rested his chin on his hands.</p><p>Sophia sniffed and watched him a moment.  They guarded the silence, just like that, for a while.</p><p>“Bad dream?”  Tyreese asked, finally, seeing that Sophia had almost calmed entirely.  She sat up in the bed and mopped at her face with her hand.  Tyreese moved from his spot only enough to take a tissue from her bedside table and offer it to her.  She thanked him quietly and accepted it.  She nodded her head and then hugged Maddie to her, twisting the yarn hair of the doll between her fingers.  “Wanna talk about it?”  Sophia’s bottom lip rolled out at just the suggestion.  “You don’t have to, but sometimes it makes us feel better to talk about things like that.  Sometimes—your Mommy has very bad dreams and she’ll sit up with me and tell me about them.”</p><p>“What do you do about ‘em?”  Sophia asked.</p><p>Tyreese smiled at her and shook his head gently.</p><p>“There isn’t much I can do about them,” he said.  “But—I can listen.  And sometimes that makes her feel better.  I can’t take the dreams away, though, because dreams aren’t real.  They’re just things our imaginations show us.”</p><p>“Mean things,” Sophia said.  Tyreese could still hear the evidence of congestion in her voice that was brought about by the sniffling.</p><p>“Sometimes,” he said.  “But good dreams can be beautiful things.  What did you dream about?”</p><p>Sophia frowned at him and twisted Maddie’s yarn hair around her fingers.  Tyreese waited her out, patiently.  He had nowhere to be, and he had a pretty good sense of what was important.</p><p>“Is Mommy OK?”  Sophia asked quietly.</p><p>Tyreese smiled to himself.  He nodded his head, not lifting it really from his folded hands as they rested on the side of her bed.</p><p>“She’s fine,” Tyreese assured Sophia.  “She worries about you, though, just like you worry about her.  Is that what your nightmare was about?”  </p><p>Sophia nodded, still frowning and still toying with the brown yarn hair of her ragdoll.  </p><p>“Did you dream about him?”  Tyreese asked.  Sophia nodded again.  “You dream about him a lot, don’t you?  You have nightmares about him?”  He got another nod.  Sophia peeked at him, looking to see if he disapproved of her honesty, before focusing hard on the yarn she was twisting.</p><p>“We were hiding,” Sophia said.  “And I was being really quiet, but he found us.”  </p><p>Tyreese swallowed.  His stomach uncomfortably registered the kinds of things that the little girl thought about when her eyes were closed and she was meant to be resting.</p><p>“He hurt your Mommy?”  Tyreese asked.  </p><p>Sophia nodded.</p><p>“A lot,” Sophia said.  “He always does.  He said he’s my Daddy, but I don’t like him.”  </p><p>Tyreese sighed and got up.  He didn’t stand entirely—not yet.  He’d learned that when his ladies were feeling particularly fragile, his sheer size, even without any kind of threat, could make them nervous.  He raised himself up only enough to sit on the edge of Sophia’s bed.  He reached a hand over and patted her head, smoothing her hair down.  She had seen what her father did to her mother’s body, but she hadn’t felt the raw anger in his hands herself.  She didn’t shy away from touch the same way that Carol did when she was tense.</p><p>“I know he hurt your Mommy a lot, Sophia,” Tyreese said.  He patted his chest.  “And that?  It hurts me.  Right here.  In my heart.” </p><p>“Me too,” Sophia agreed.</p><p>“I know,” Tyreese said.  “That’s why I’m telling you.  We have that in common.  He was your—father.  Your biological father.  But he wasn’t ever your Daddy, OK?  And you don’t—sweetheart—you don’t have to like him and you don’t have to love him.  You decide who you like and who you love, OK?  You decide that.  I would love to be your Daddy, but…I won’t be until you decide that’s what you want, OK?  Because that’s for you to decide.  You understand?”  Sophia nodded at him.  She moved, uncurling a little, and wiggled beside him.  He dropped his arm and rubbed her back.  “He’s gone.  He won’t come back again.  And he won’t ever hurt your Mommy again, Sophia.  Do you know why?”  </p><p>“Why?”  Sophia asked.</p><p>“Because I won’t allow it,” Tyreese said.  “Because—I’m big.  And I’m strong.  And I’m bigger and stronger than he is or ever was.”  He gave Sophia a reassuring smile when she tensed at the thought.  He kneaded her back with his fingertips to relieve some of the tension in her tiny body.  “And I’ll never let him, or anybody else, hurt your Mommy or you, OK?  And you have my promise, Sophia, that—I’ll never, ever hurt either one of you.”  </p><p>Sophia regarded him a moment with big eyes.  She had her mother’s eyes.  True, Sophia’s were brown—a gift from her grandmother—but they were shaped like Carol’s eyes and they held the same kind of emotion that Carol’s eyes held.  They got to Tyreese, too, the same way Carol’s eyes did.</p><p>“Promise?”  Sophia asked.</p><p>Tyreese offered her his pinky.  </p><p>“Pinky promise,” he said, winking at her.  </p><p>Sophia smiled and curled her finger around his.  Hers was so tiny that she could barely successfully pinky promise with him, but he made it work.  He leaned and kissed her on the forehead.  He pulled her to him, hugging her body against his.  She wrapped her arms around him.</p><p>“You want to go see your Mommy?  Make sure she’s OK?”  Tyreese asked.  Sophia eyed him and he could practically read her mind.  She wanted to, almost desperately, but she didn’t want to offend him with her need to check on Carol after he’d assured her that her mother was fine.  He smiled at her.  “I know that, sometimes, we know something, but we still—we want to see it.”  </p><p>Sophia smiled and nodded.</p><p>Tyreese stood up and reached his arms out to her.  She came to him, still holding onto Maddie.  She wrapped around him, allowing him to carry her.  </p><p>“Come on,” he said.  He reached for her pillow.  “You can sleep with us tonight.”  </p><p>He paused a moment to turn off her lamp, and then he carried her down the hall and deposited her on the bed.  Carol sat up and rolled to the side.  She hadn’t bothered to turn her lamp off from earlier, and she hadn’t gone back to sleep.  She trusted him, and he knew that, but she’d still felt the need to stay awake and, more than likely, to listen and make sure that things went well.</p><p>“Ty…” she said.</p><p>“Sophia’s sleeping with us tonight,” Tyreese said.  </p><p>The little girl, having been deposited on the bed, immediately hugged her mother, kissed her cheek, and then did a careful inspection of her face, turning it this way and that with her small fingers.  Carol allowed the inspection while looking at Tyreese.</p><p>“Are you sure?”  She asked.</p><p>“I love you,” Tyreese said immediately.  “Sophia and I already talked about it.  Stop worrying and get some sleep.”  </p><p>He pulled the cover back and tapped Sophia’s shoulder.  She needed nothing more as far as an invitation went.  She immediately crawled under the cover between Tyreese and Carol.  She adjusted her pillow and doll, and Carol snuggled next to her.  Tyreese found his place in the bed and switched off the light.  He reached a hand across Sophia, found Carol’s arm, and squeezed it affectionately.</p><p>“Goodnight, Ty,” Carol said.  “Goodnight, baby girl.”  </p><p>“Night, Mommy,” Sophia offered.  “Night, Daddy,” she said.  The word came out with a little pause, but it still made his chest tighten.</p><p>“Goodnight, ladies,” Tyreese offered.  “I love you both.”</p>
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